Elba Sara Beach & Golf Resort

“Hotel is not equipped to deal with the number of guests it accommodates”

We went as a family of 4- children aged 6 and 9. I am going to be really honest and fair in this review. There are some good points to this hotel but unfortunately this hotel is not equipped to accommodate the amount of guests it has in peak season. I do not consider it to be worthy of 4 star ratin… more

We went as a family of 4- children aged 6 and 9. I am going to be really honest and fair in this review. There are some good points to this hotel but unfortunately this hotel is not equipped to accommodate the amount of guests it has in peak season. I do not consider it to be worthy of 4 star rating. Cons: 1.Late check in time 2.Filthy toilets 3.Sunbeds 4.Lack of bottled water in rooms 5.Not enough facilities for amount of guests 6.Poor organisation of evening entertainment for guests 7. Hotel in need of TLC 8.Standard of drinks was poor 1.We arrived at around 11.40am after leaving home at 1am. When we arrived we were told that we could not check in to our rooms until 3pm, although we were not informed of this we understood that this was standard procedure at this hotel. We were told to help ourselves to welcome drinks which in a four star hotel we feel should have been made more of, you can only make a first impression once! After being told we couldn’t check in to our rooms we waited by the pool area. We went back to wait up in the reception area around 2.30pm and saw guests arriving and immediately being given their keys to their rooms. We approached the desk and were told our rooms were still not ready, eventually we got our keys at 3.15! 2. The downstairs toilets were filthy when we arrived we reported this to reception and they arranged for them to be cleaned. However, most days these toilets had no toilet paper and some did not lock. One night there was sick all over the floor. The pool toilets were even worse! 3. If you wanted sunbeds you had to get up early, the worst part of this was people reserving beds and not returning despite multiple signs around the pool areas. I will say that towards the end of our stay staff were starting to enforce this rule. 4. When we arrived we had 4 small bottles of water in our room (1 each). These were not replenished and I left the empty bottles on the dresser in case I needed to refill. Despite this they were thrown away by housekeeping. I approached the reception half way through our stay for more water and was told “we don’t have many bottles so you will have to refill the ones you had at the machines”. I explained that I had saved them but they had since been thrown by housekeeping. I had no response apart from “oh no”. This is not the standard you expect from a 4 star all inclusive stay, water should be replenished daily as standard. 5. We understood it was peak season. However we have stayed at multiple hotels during peak season that are just as busy and have not encountered the problems we did here e.g queues in the restaurant, lack of food available (waiting to be replenished), drinks machines failing due to overuse. In my opinion for the size of the hotel there are fundamental flaws not enough self service drinks machines, the restaurant is simply not big enough for the amount of guests and there are clearly not enough staff. 6. Whilst we enjoyed the entertainment (mostly) and felt the entertainment team did a great job, in a 4 star hotel you should not have to set up your own seating for entertainment on the terrace. There were not enough chairs for guests and it was a complete free for all. Very disappointing! 7. The hotel clearly needs some money spending on it with repairs needed in areas e.g the roof of the pool bar is very tired, loose tiles in areas around the pool and the wooden bridge next to the pool had slats missing 8. The drinks in the pool bar were not of good quality, the soft drinks were often flat and the slushy machines stopped working after our first day. Alcoholic drinks were not great either- I ordered Malibu and Coke several times and the measures appeared way off being way too strong. The standard of drinks upstairs was better but inconsistent for guests. Pros 1. Good pool areas 2. Food was ok 3. Room 4. Entertainment team 1. The pools were lovely and perfect for the kids. However, I did not really appreciate people smoking around the sunbed areas. 2.The food was ok for an all inclusive and provided plenty of choice , they clearly try to cater for everyone. We ate at the Italian restaurant one evening and enjoyed this. 3. Our room was lovely with a large balcony with chairs and sunbeds. The balcony was overlooking the sea and the pool. 4. The entertainment team were very friendly and worked hard. Overall, this hotel has much room for improvement. Needless to say we won’t return.

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“My Elba Sara Review”

I’m currently staying here and we are a family of 5. I feel that the hotel is nice but it’s not big enough to accommodate the amount of guests. Reasons - The restaurant is too small for the number of guests. There is always a queue outside the door to get in. If you wait for it to go down you the… more

I’m currently staying here and we are a family of 5. I feel that the hotel is nice but it’s not big enough to accommodate the amount of guests. Reasons - The restaurant is too small for the number of guests. There is always a queue outside the door to get in. If you wait for it to go down you then find there are no plates and the food has gone. You then have to wait around for new food to be put out which can take a while. Example(breakfast) there is only one toaster area across the restaurant surely you should have two so people are not queuing for toast and crossing each other. The desserts are always running out which isn’t great with 3 dessert loving kids. Food- it’s so repetitive and there is never any themes. My kids have had pizza and plain pasta every lunchtime and dinner time since we arrived as there is very little choice for them. We are now eating out most evenings. Breakfast is the only meal that we enjoy. The entertainment areas: they far too small for the amount of gusts that stay here. It’s pretty much impossible to get a seat to watch the shows. There is no where near enough seating areas to accommodate the amount of people, we end up sitting in the hotel reception areas most nights. Having it outside somewhere with a stage and more seats would be better. There are also constant long queues at the bars. The hotel room is lovely and we have an amazing view. The staff are very polite and friendly. The pool area is great, plenty of room and although we get up early to get a subbed there always seems enough around for people. The grounds are very well maintained. It’s not a hotel we would come back to, the food and lack of seating areas around the entertainment really lets it down! The views and surroundings are very good

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“Lovely hotel - mixed review”

We have just returned from a 10 night stay at this hotel, with our two young children. Firstly, the reception team was friendly on arrival and throughout. We booked the Junior suite, however at check in we was advised we had been upgraded to a suite which we was very grateful for. The suite was a… more

We have just returned from a 10 night stay at this hotel, with our two young children. Firstly, the reception team was friendly on arrival and throughout. We booked the Junior suite, however at check in we was advised we had been upgraded to a suite which we was very grateful for. The suite was amazing, good air con, very spacious, big bedrooms with large beds, big bathroom, plenty of storage space, and two separate balcony’s with chairs and sun beds. The animation team are honestly incredible, they work so hard to keep all guests entertained (both children and adults) all day and night. We all enjoyed the entertainment every evening, it was different each night..live singers, magicians, saxophone player, Lion King show, white party ect. Mini disco every night. In my opinion, the waiting and bar staff are not particularly guest friendly. They are not unkind, but sadly majority of them do seem unhappy and uninterested in guests, we understand they are likely understaffed and working long hours but it did dampen our experience a little. There is the odd one who will smile and be friendly, one lovely man behind the lobby bar couldn’t do enough for guests..I believe he pronounced his name ‘Adaya’ but spelt different to this, he was fab!! We felt the food was mostly good in the dinner hall, with variety and a different theme each evening. Unfortunately there was multiple times where there was no cutlery or plates available, and often the plates were wet or unclean. The pool snack bar was a little grubby throughout, food was good, but the large containers appeared slightly unclean and a few had missing handles which realistically makes it difficult to move in a small space and with hot food within. The cleanliness wasn’t the best, the floors in both our room, the stairs, and the corridors do not appear to be swept much at all and therefore possibly not cleaned either. We wore shoes around our room, but it was difficult to keep on top of our childrens dirty feet and stop them putting them on the bedsheets. The beds were made daily which pleased us, but not changed. They are not keen on changing the towels daily either, which we understand but they do need changing every other. Especially the bath mats, they were filthy unfortunately because of the unclean floor and having to put shoes off and on getting out of the shower. The shower door had no seal at the bottom so the water seeped through to the floor quite a lot after 4 people showering daily. Its generally a nice hotel and the staff are obviously very hard working, but we personally felt that the things that seem small/trivial do make a big difference and is what makes a 4* hotel a 4*. There are 3 pools, perfect for all ages! Our children loved them, especially when the animation team did water games, the pool party, and in particular the inflatable slide! Sun beds are mostly taken by breakfast, on the last day we did see staff enforcing the rules and removing towels if people did not return to them within an hour i believe. The resort has a really nice waterfall round the back, lovely area for photos. We liked the area, its quiet but there is a lovely walk to the beach but it is a bit far for children under 10, so we got a taxi back that was only €3. We went to the market (Tuesdays and Saturdays) it was very busy and the sellers are quite pushy and overwhelming. There are chipmunks out the back of the hotel, under the rocks near the sea too!

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“Value for money”

Location is great. Fab shopping centre and bars right next door and not too far into town. The constant planes flying over were annoying but that a personal preference. Rooms were large and clean. The beds were not changed once though and as the week went on, The cleaning lacked a lot. It was more … more

Location is great. Fab shopping centre and bars right next door and not too far into town. The constant planes flying over were annoying but that a personal preference. Rooms were large and clean. The beds were not changed once though and as the week went on, The cleaning lacked a lot. It was more a make the beds. The atmosphere is relaxing in parts and vibrant when it has to be. I didn’t find the staff rude at all they just didn’t want in interact. No smiles or anything. The food is the largest concern here, never warm and always a wait. We always waited for drinks and sometimes never even asked at dinner. We were told on day 1 there was no room at the al la carte for the week we was here which is disappointing as it only seats 20. Drinks are not watered down and they are generous pours. What I didn’t like was the damp taste in some of the plastic cups. The hotel could use a little refresh, but parts were lovely and I did find the areas clean and tidy. For what we paid it was fine and I do think it idea for young families

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